Article
Details
Citation
Allan J, McMinn D & Powell D (2019) Tracking snacking in real time: Time to look at individualised patterns of behaviour. Nutrition and Health, 25 (3), pp. 179-184. https://doi.org/10.1177/0260106019866099
Abstract
Background:
Identifying when and where people overeat is important for intervention design, yet little is known about how unhealthy behaviours unfold in real life.
Aim:
To track the activities, social contexts and locations that co-occur with unhealthy snacking.
Methods:
64 adults (49F, mean age= 38.6 years) used electronic diaries to record snacking, location, social context and current activity every waking hour over 7 days. The proportion of snacking episodes that co-occurred with each location/activity/context were calculated by group and individual.
Results:
Over the group, snacking was most frequent whilst socialising (19.9% of hours spent socialising) or using the TV/computer (19.7%), when with friends (16.7%) and when at home (15.3%). All intra-class correlation statistics for cued behaviour were low, indicating the importance of within-person variability. There were marked individual differences between people in what constituted a {\textquoteleft}typical{\textquoteright} context for snacking.
Conclusions:
People show substantial differences in the contexts in which they snack. Tailoring interventions to these individual patterns of behaviour may improve intervention efficacy.
Keywords
snacking; overweight; obesity; context; individual differences; real time
Journal
Nutrition and Health: Volume 25, Issue 3
Status | Published |
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Funders | |
Publication date | 30/09/2019 |
Publication date online | 26/07/2019 |
Date accepted by journal | 26/07/2019 |
Publisher | Sage Publications |
ISSN | 0260-1060 |
eISSN | 2047-945X |
People (1)
Professor in Psychology, Psychology